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KANSANS TO BENEFIT FROM UNIVERSITY'S PARTNERSHIP WITH VETERINARY LABORATORY

MANHATTAN -- Kansas State University is strengthening its collaboration with industry through a partnership with Abaxis Inc., an animal health company coming to the Kansas City area.

Thursday the company announced a strategic alliance with K-State, the K-State Veterinary Diagnostic Lab and the university's business development and commercialization arm, the National Institute for Strategic Technology Acquisition and Commercialization. This alliance will provide a full-service commercial laboratory for veterinarians across the United States.

"Collaboration between our animal health experts here at K-State and Abaxis shows what is possible when higher education and industry work together," said Kirk Schulz, Kansas State University president. "Building relationships like this will help make K-State a top 50 public research university. The partnership with Abaxis provides momentum not only for K-State but for the Kansas City Animal Health Corridor as a whole."

Abaxis is in the final stages of building selection in the Kansas City area -- which is in close proximity to both the Kansas City airport and the K-State campus in Manhattan, Kan. -- to house a laboratory testing facility that will be the hub of the Abaxis Veterinary Reference Laboratory. K-State experts will help provide an array of laboratory testing and pathology analysis that needs veterinary interpretation and experience.

Kansans will benefit from this alliance in several ways, said Kent Glasscock, president and CEO of K-State's National Institute for Strategic Technology Acquisition and Commercialization. During a 10-year period the new laboratory is projected to bring 50 to 100 jobs to Kansas.

"Our partnership with Abaxis is a perfect example of how K-State can create economic growth," Glasscock said. "By leveraging our capabilities on the Manhattan campus, we can bring companies like Abaxis to the Kansas City Animal Health Corridor and strengthen Kansas and the region."

Moreover, veterinary students at K-State will have more opportunities to learn how to diagnose diseases affecting companion and exotic animals.

"The relationship between the College of Veterinary Medicine and Abaxis provides an opportunity for us to remain abreast of changes that continually take place in veterinary medical diagnostics," said Ralph Richardson, dean of the college. "K-State's veterinary college has built a great legacy for being relevant to the profession. With its 100 faculty members teaching more than 500 veterinary students, graduate students, interns and residents at any one time, we have a great opportunity to assure that our graduates are exposed to cutting-edge laboratory diagnostic practices. Emerging diagnostic techniques and rapid implementation in the field should benefit the entire profession."

Pat George, Kansas commerce secretary, said the partnership is a great development for the Kansas City Animal Health Corridor.

"The partnership between K-State and Abaxis will bring job growth and research discovery and prove to be a great asset to our state," he said.